Iowa Lakes Valuation Project

Black Hawk Lake

Iowa lakes have great value to the citizens of the state. In the process of using lakes for fishing, boating, swimming and enjoying other outdoor recreation, Iowans also spend money that benefit local economies. During the 2002-2005 period, Black Hawk Lake averaged 146,043 visitors annually. They spend an average $19.05 million annually which in turn supports 379 jobs and $5.09 million of labor income in the region.

Scenario 2: Reducing Total Nitrogen, Total Phosphorous, and Suspended Solids by 50 percent.

Category

Base

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

Single Day Visitors

94,671

130,784

116,434

Multiple Day Visitors

51,372

70,968

63,181

Sales

$25,953,352

$35,853,574

$31,919,432

Income

$5,094,629

$7,038,037

$6,265,767

Jobs

379

524

466

Black Hawk Lake

Single Day Trips, 2002-05 Average

94,671

Multiple Day Trips, 2002

51,372

Total Trips, 2002

146,043

Each recreation trip or visitation has an associated set of expenditures. The composition of these expenditures for typical trips of single day or multiple days (Table 1) is based on a survey of Storm Lake and Rock Creek Lake during the 2002 season. Applying these averages to the lake visitors in the above table results in the estimated spending figures in Table 2.

This level of spending is linked to other economic activity in the region as the initial expenditures are re-spent on goods and services in the regional economy. These multiplier effects are estimated with an Input-Output model for the region and are summarized in Table 3.